Lauren Kennedy's Journey: From Flight Attendant to Myofunctional Therapist and Unhinged Hygienist

Welcome back to The Unhinged Hygienist — mildly inappropriate, highly opinionated, and somehow still employed in healthcare. In Episode 3, Anastasia turns the tables on Lauren Kennedy and asks the question every listener has been wondering: how did all of this happen? Lauren's answer involves a psychology degree that never was, a 9/11 layoff at 30,000 feet, a decade at Home Depot, and one Myers-Briggs test that changed everything. Buckle up.

Lauren's story is the kind that makes you believe in divine redirection. Every seemingly random detour — flight attendant, auto mechanics class, flooring department expert — stitched together the skills and perspective she uses today as a myofunctional therapist helping patients breathe, sleep, and heal. If you've ever felt like your career makes no sense on paper, this episode is proof that it doesn't have to.

The Therapist Who Didn't Want to Fix People

Lauren originally wanted to be a therapist. She loved helping people — always had — but there was one problem: she didn't want to fix anyone. The idea of sitting quietly while someone unloaded their darkest thoughts, week after week, with no clear before-and-after? That wasn't her speed.

As she tells it, "I really wanted to help people help themselves." She wanted to be a bridge — a very talkative bridge — guiding people toward tangible results they could see and feel. That instinct would later define her entire clinical philosophy. She didn't want to scrape teeth in silence. She wanted every patient to leave her chair understanding something about their body they hadn't known before.

Ironically, she jokes that dentistry became the perfect compromise. "I work in the mouths where people physically can't talk back," she laughs. "It's perfect. I love my captive audience." But beneath the humor is a real insight: Lauren understood early that the best way to help people was to meet them where they were, educate them in real time, and give them tools to keep improving after they left her chair.

The Psychology of Why Patients Hate the Dentist

Lauren's abandoned psychology degree wasn't wasted. In fact, she uses it every single day to explain one of the most universal truths in dentistry: patients don't hate you. They hate what you represent. And your limbic system — the part of your brain that handles fear and survival — literally cannot tell the difference between a dental hygienist looming over you with sharp instruments and a saber-toothed tiger.

Think about it from the patient's perspective. You're lying flat on your back, neck exposed like a gazelle, mouth forced open, while a masked stranger hovers above you with metal tools. Lauren breaks it down with her signature directness: "Your brain doesn't know the difference. We are the saber-toothed tiger." Understanding this evolutionary mismatch completely changed how she approached anxious patients. Instead of taking their fear personally, she educated them about it — and then gave them back control.

9/11, United Airlines, and the Layoff That Redirected Everything

Lauren's first career wasn't in healthcare at all. She was a United Airlines flight attendant from 2000 to 2001, living her best 20-year-old life in a constant flight pattern. She could evacuate an airplane in 90 seconds flat. She traveled the world. And then, on September 11, 2001, she was literally in the air on her way to New Zealand when the world stopped.

United was one of the airlines directly affected. Lauren was grounded, then laid off by the end of September. What felt like devastation at the time was, in her own words, "the universe being like, okay, this right here is not your path." She didn't know it then, but that layoff set off a chain reaction that would eventually land her in dental hygiene, airway health, and myofunctional therapy.

The Myers-Briggs Test That Chose Her Career

Stuck and searching, Lauren did what any directionless twenty-something in 2001 would do: she bought a book. Not just any book — the "Do What You Are" career guide based on the Myers-Briggs personality test. She took the full paper exam ("Number two pencil. Full commitment," she insists) and discovered she was an ENFJ.

The book listed ideal careers for her personality type. And there, among the suggestions, was dental hygienist. She didn't grow up wanting to clean teeth. She didn't have a family member in dentistry. But something about the combination of hands-on work, patient education, and immediate gratification clicked. As it turns out, Anastasia — her future co-host and best friend — is also an ENFJ. They joke that they should have known they'd end up together from the very first episode.

Auto Mechanics, Home Depot, and the Art of Fixing Things

Lauren's love of fixing things runs deep. She grew up working on cars with her dad. She took auto mechanics in high school instead of home economics. She hung all the blinds in her house. And after hygiene school, when full-time dental jobs were impossible to find in Chicago, she worked at Home Depot for ten years — including one memorable stint as "Flooring Lauren" in the floor and wall department.

She's not kidding when she says she could change your oil, install your hardwood floors, and then clean your teeth. But the real thread connecting all of it is the before-and-after. Lauren lives for transformation. "I like the sort of before and after that we get in dentistry," she says. "It's kind of like dentistry is tiny human auto mechanics but wetter." That craving for visible, measurable results is what eventually pushed her beyond standard hygiene into specialized airway and myofunctional work.

The New Grad Who Knew Everything (And Didn't)

Lauren graduated hygiene school in 2006 with what she now calls "completely unwarranted confidence." She was insufferable, she admits. She got kicked out of classes for arguing with instructors. She held her high school's record for most write-ups without expulsion. Boundary-pushing was baked into her DNA — partly because she's an only child, partly because she simply couldn't tolerate being told to learn something useless.

That overconfidence got checked fast. Her very first boss, Dr. Edward Matsumoto, looked at her on day one and said, "You have an airway issue and a clenching problem." Lauren's response? "Respectfully, no. You're wrong." Twenty years later, she can admit how deeply wrong she was. Dr. Matsumoto became her original guru, planting what she calls "a very slow-growing oak tree seed" that would eventually become her entire career focus. Sometimes the best teachers are the ones who see what you can't see in yourself yet.

Temping, System Failures, and the Urge to Whisper 'Run'

Lauren temped for years while piecing together full-time work. And like Anastasia, she developed a love-hate relationship with it. The love: exposure to new techniques, personalities, and setups that make you a better clinician. The hate: walking into offices and seeing patients who have clearly never received comprehensive care.

She describes the frustration with characteristic candor. No perio charts. Health histories that haven't been updated in years. Doctors dismissing six-millimeter pockets with pus as "Susie's normal." And when she tries to bring up airway, clenching, TMJ, or myofunctional disorders? She might as well be speaking another language. "I just want to sit there and whisper in their ear quietly like, run," she says. Both hosts admit it may have slipped out loud once or twice.

The systemic frustration runs deeper than any single office. Lauren believes the problem starts with education that stops the moment you get your license. Continuing education exists, but almost nothing pushes providers outside the box they were originally taught in. Which, of course, is exactly why they're the Unhinged Hygienists. They chose not to stay in the box.

Her Dad's Parkinson's Diagnosis: The Pivot to Airway

In 2017, Lauren's father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at just 58 years old. The diagnosis cracked her world open — not just emotionally, but clinically. She started researching what Parkinson's meant for oral function: swallowing, breathing, oral motor control, tongue posture, airway collapse. And she realized with stunning clarity that this was exactly the area of the body she worked in every day.

"It became overly personal," she says. School had taught her about these conditions in textbooks and case studies. But when it's your dad looking down the barrel of progressive decline, you don't want textbook knowledge. You want every tool, every technique, every intervention that might preserve function and dignity for as long as possible. Her father's diagnosis became the gravitational pull that drew her deeper into airway health, breathing mechanics, and eventually myofunctional therapy.

Amanda: The Friend Who Taught Her Holistic Healing

Lauren's dad got her into airway. Her best friend Amanda got her into everything else. They'd been inseparable since they were 14 — so close they were nicknamed "Loranda." Amanda was a holistic chiropractor, a third-generation vegetarian, a six-miles-a-day runner. She was, by every visible metric, the picture of health. So when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 36, Lauren was equal parts confused and furious.

The diagnosis made no sense. Amanda did everything "right." But Lauren committed herself to walking beside her through every alternative and holistic treatment available. Amanda fought hard — so hard she got nine extra years. They lost her in November 2025. And while the grief is still raw, Lauren carries Amanda's legacy forward every day. "She was my real catalyst," Lauren says. "My dad got me into airway and myofunctional. She got me into the naturopathic, holistic and root cause part of health and dental care."

Rock Bottom, 2023, and the Moment Everything Clicked

If Lauren's life sounds like a lot, that's because it was. The early 2020s were a demolition derby of major life events. COVID in 2020. An international move back from Munich to Vegas in 2021. A full hysterectomy. A divorce. A patient who looked her in the eye and predicted that the next few years would be brutal. The patient was not wrong.

Lauren hit absolute rock bottom in 2023. But from that lowest point, something shifted. She lifted her head out of the mud, let her brain finally process everything, and heard about a field she'd never explored: myofunctional therapy. Suddenly, every thread of her life made sense. Her dad's Parkinson's and airway issues. Amanda's holistic approach. Her own clenching and breathing struggles. Her psychology background. Her hands-on fixing instinct. Her deep need to help people help themselves.

"Everything clicked," she says. Myofunctional therapy — retraining the lips, tongue, and facial muscles to support proper breathing, swallowing, and airway function — was the bridge she'd been trying to build her entire career. And now she helps patients build that same bridge every single day.

The Myo Coach: Virtual Airway Care From Anywhere

Today, Lauren practices as The Myo Coach — both in-person and virtually. Her website, themyocoach.com, is where patients and referring providers can connect with her for myofunctional therapy screenings, airway assessments, and treatment plans. All you need is a camera and good lighting, and she can walk you through the entire screening process via Zoom.

She's also active on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube as The Myo Coach (M-Y-O Coach), where she shares educational videos about tongue posture, breathing exercises, and myofunctional techniques. Her content lives in YouTube Shorts — not because the videos are short, but because she learned that filming vertically makes them eligible for the Shorts feed, where more people actually find them.

Why Lauren Is the Heart of The Unhinged Hygienists

Anastasia describes Lauren as her calm, steady mind — the therapist she never became, but absolutely is. Lauren describes herself as a fire hose of information who sends patients home with Post-it note collections. Both descriptions are true. What makes Lauren extraordinary isn't just her knowledge. It's her willingness to see every patient as a whole human being with a story, not just a set of teeth to clean.

"I want to look at each one of those eight to ten people I see as an individual human that could benefit from seeing us today," she says. "Not just a polishing, not just a shine, but really helping them affect change in their life. That's what I live for." That philosophy — individual care, education, empowerment — is the heartbeat of everything The Unhinged Hygienists stands for.

Key Takeaways for Listeners

• Your career doesn't have to make sense on paper to make sense in retrospect. Every detour teaches you something you'll use later.
• Helping people help themselves is more powerful than fixing them. Education and empowerment create lasting change.
• Patient fear isn't personal — it's evolutionary. Understanding the limbic system's role in dental anxiety changes how you show up in the operatory.
• The best mentors often see your blind spots before you do. Trust the teachers who challenge your certainty.
• Personal loss can become professional fuel. Lauren's dad and Amanda didn't just shape her heart — they shaped her entire clinical focus.
• Myofunctional therapy connects the dots between breathing, sleeping, swallowing, and systemic health. If you haven't explored it yet, you're missing a massive piece of the puzzle.
• Virtual care expands access. You don't need a fancy office to change lives — sometimes you just need a camera, a light, and the courage to teach.

Listen to Episode 3 and Meet Lauren

This is the episode where you finally understand what makes Lauren Kennedy tick. From flight attendant to flooring expert to myofunctional therapist, her path defies every conventional career trajectory — and that's exactly why she's so good at what she does. She doesn't see boxes. She sees bridges.

Listen to Episode 3 of The Unhinged Hygienist wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Lauren at @themyocoach on Instagram and YouTube. Visit themyocoach.com to schedule a virtual screening, refer a patient, or learn more about myofunctional therapy. And follow us at @TheUnhingedHygienist on Instagram and Facebook for more unhinged, whole-body healthcare conversations.